Review by Booklist Review
The name Vernon Dahmer likely doesn't ring a bell with most readers the way Malcolm X does, yet journalist Wilkie (The Road to Camelot, 2017, with Thomas Oliphant) illustrates why that must change. Dahmer, a light-skinned Black man who passed for white, fought for Black voters' rights during the Civil Rights Movement in Jim Crow Mississippi. For his efforts, he drew the ire of one of the most violent sects of the Ku Klux Klan, the White Knights, who murdered him. In addition to Dahmer's life, the book explores the role of Tom Landrum, an FBI informant who infiltrated the White Knights. It chronicles how he unraveled the psychology behind their actions and worked from within to dismantle their activities. This thorough, well-researched book represents a landmark in the history of the Klan, how they operated in the Deep South, and the complex, often frustrating role of law enforcement. Most of all, When Evil Lived in Laurel demonstrates the continued impact of racial violence on the current political climate in America. Readers will find a wealth of historical detail in this engaging narrative, a natural follow-up for fans of the 2018 Spike Lee film BlacKkKlansman who want to learn more about this subject.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Wilkie (The Fall of the House of Zeus) delivers a tension-filled account of an FBI informant's efforts to bring a notoriously violent chapter of the Ku Klux Klan to justice in the 1960s. Wilkie traces Tom Landrum's decision to infiltrate the White Knights in his hometown of Laurel, Miss., back to his disgust over seeing how enthusiastically a local crowd cheered for the execution of a Black prisoner in 1951. Fourteen years later, Landrum, after serving in the U.S. Air Force, playing college football, and returning home to become a teacher and youth court counselor, was recruited by an FBI agent to go undercover with the White Knights. In 1966, Vernon Dahmer, a grocery store owner and founder of a local NAACP chapter who was leading a campaign to register Black voters, was killed when the White Knights firebombed his house. Landrum's meticulous note-taking and insights into the inner workings of the White Knights helped bring some of those responsible for Dahmer's murder to justice, though imperial wizard Sam Bowers wasn't convicted for ordering the killing until 1998. Drawing on Landrum's contemporaneous journals, FBI reports, and interviews with Landrum and his wife, Wilkie vividly conveys the turmoil of the era and the high stakes of the mission. This real-life thriller is a worthy tribute to the courage of those who put everything on the line for civil rights. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Wilkie (The Fall of the House of Zeus) narrates the downfall of the White Knights of the Mississippi Klu Klux Klan, a chapter that was active during the civil rights era in Laurel, Mississippi. In this book, the White Knights are seen primarily through the eyes of Tom Landrum, an FBI informant who infiltrated and reported on them for four years. Repelled by the White Knights' activities and worried about the potential repercussions of his membership, Landrum informed on their terrorist acts throughout southern Mississippi, which culminated in the firebombing and murder of the Black civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer. Following Dahmer's murder, the White Knights fractured, and Landrum continued to dutifully report on their infighting and power struggles. Wilkie relates all this, as well as the FBI's investigation of Dahmer's murder and use of extralegal methods to obtain confessions and cooperation. Wilkie also reports on the arrests and trials of the White Knights and briefly connects their white supremacist activities to the present day. The book relies on extensive primary sources and includes several photographs, in order to provide a complete picture of the period. VERDICT An interesting account of civil rights-era Mississippi, although it's largely focused on the perspective of white men. Recommended for readers interested in civil rights history.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A retired University of Mississippi journalism professor recounts the story of a Mississippian who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan and served as an informant for the FBI. Wilkie has reported on civil rights for more than 50 years. In his latest book, he digs into White supremacy and voter suppression with a welcome excavation of the neglected story of Tom Landrum, a courageous Jones County youth court counselor who, at the request of the FBI, joined and provided secret reports on the organization known as the White Knights of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan, which had murdered civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner the previous year. Landrum went undercover after growing disturbed by the racism of local officials, who kept Black residents from registering to vote in part by requiring them to answer questions such as, "How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?" The author draws on Landrum's written FBI reports and other credible sources in this account of how prosecutors won convictions of a group of White Knights implicated in the murder of Vernon Dahmer, a longtime county NAACP president who had worked to register Black voters and died after Klansmen firebombed his house. Wilkie has reconstructed some conversations, which results at times in dialogue perhaps too neatly expository and requires him frequently to quote Klan members' use of derogatory racial terms. (Wilkie quotes members' use of the N-word 100+ times. It's never used gratuitously but rather demonstrates the virulent racism.) Nonetheless, the author skillfully examines a case full of cloak-and-dagger intrigue: passwords, death threats, secret codes, clandestine meetings in wooded areas after dark, and well-maintained suspense about whether the White Knights would discover the spy in their midst. In different ways, Landrum and Dahmer risked their lives to fight appalling injustices, and anyone looking for underappreciated civil rights heroes might profitably start with either man. A true-crime tale that offers a rare insider's perspective on the KKK in its heyday in Mississippi. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
